And winding dooooown

Traveling overnight is so incredibly efficient. It's ridiculous, you'd be sleeping anyways, and while you do, you get where you wanna go. So jealous of the public transportation here.

So I left Hampi at 8:30pm on Wed and got to Fort Cochin at 4:30am on Friday. Thursday I was SO bored in Bangalore because I arrived at 6:30am and had no where to go until 5:15pm. Lame. So what did I do? Well I wandered until I found a restaurant that opened at 7 and they let me sit there for a loooooooooong time reading until the first movie started at a theater near there at 10:30. It was Salt with Angelina Jolie which was just as distracting as I hoped it would be. But then it was over and I was bored again, so I finally figured out where there was a theater that showed more than one movie and got there in time to miss the very beginning but saw the rest of Inception. More actiony movies than I prefer, but I'll watch anything and it kept me occupied until it was time for my train. And even including really expensive rickshaws it still cost less than seeing one movie at home. So yay me!

The I slept on the train and got to Fort Cochin at 4:30am, but had to sit in the waiting room until around 6:30 because that's when the ferry runs. It was nice to be up and about early but I am a little knackered tonight. Got through 4 books since Wed because of all the waiting. I am well read in silly romance novels, rereading Eragon, another fantasy book, and The Host. So pretty much being lazy, but I like it.

Today the power was out. Like literally all day long. For a real reason this time though, a branch fell on a power line. Well done India, a legit reason for a lack of power. So suckage. I really miss Laura and Becca, I was telling my mom about how excited Becca is to get back to her "squidgy duvet" and I just laughed and missed how excited she gets and then I wanted to talk to someone about the Host which Laura recommended I read and she isn't here! Gotta make time to go to Europe so I can see those girls again!

Alright, I know the posts have not been all that interesting, but I am gonna focus my internet energies on giving y'all some pics so you have that to look forward to!
Me?
I got one plan for the near future: shop till I drop

I haven't bought enough.

The title of this post is the feeling you get when you pack everything into the black and yellow backpack that your little brother gave to you when he was done - Dillon has to have a new backpack every year and what's not cool enough for a 12 year old still is cool to me - and realize that even with what you thought was a lot of purchases, it all still fits...barely.

Thus when I arrive in Cochin (quite a process) on Friday, I will probably nap, be lazy, and eventually pack my big duffel and see exactly how much room I can exploit and buy more things! I mean I will never say "Gee I wish I had bought less in India" let's be real.

Yesterday we did lazy Hampi things again, and also spent a few hours arranging the rest of Laura's time in India so that no time is wasted because trains are overbooked etc...
This may seem like a waste of time for me because I was not going on any of the aforementioned trains because they are going North - although we recently realized that my flight is out of Delhi and if I hadn't left most of my stuff in Cochin I could have lugged my big bag and flown out of there ah well - but I got to play with the owners daughter who he proclaims is a cheeky monkey.
And she is :-) we made faces at each other, she sat in my lap, she opened my wallet and made surprised faces at the money, she tried to take off my watch, I gave her a 5 rupee bracelet I had bought, and we haggled over the fact that she could not keep the $50 traveler check that I was cashing. She was so cute and funny and everything we did made her giggle. It was tons of fun and I felt especially cool because she was so taken with my pink nail polish. Thus I am way awesomer than Becca or Laura, just sayin.

I had to cash my traveler's check, because, if I haven't mentioned, there is only 1 ATM here and it does not take Mastercard. The bank is always open and has men in it, but does not actually function except during business hours...which seem to be from sometime until 2pm. But found a place to cash my check and am back in business! cost me 800 rupees for 6 nights in this hotel, it is nice to share the expenses with some buddies.

Speaking of buddies....went to Durga again, where they play the live music, because Becca is absolutely obsessed and it is pretty cool. Chatted and laughed until like 11:30 with another English girl, her bf Steve, and another guy. I don't remember names haha. And it was great to laughing and joking though I wish we had met them earlier because they would have been fun to wander around Hampi with. Slipped even further into my faux-British accent which I have no control over and is mostly the rhythm of my words and the use of words like "bloody, lovely, proper (as in "should we have a proper lunch or just a nibble"), loo roll, etc.... good times

But my lovely English buds left today without me. It really does make me so sad, traveling with those two was so much fun and it was so nice to have comrades when India got crazy. We were so lucky to get on so well and to be so comfortable with one another and I am seriously so unbelievably sad to see them go. I felt crazy ill this morning which didn't help and then stupid Laura had to hug me and tell me how much she would miss me which, of course, made me burst into tears like a nancy. But I have accepted my nancy status and will just have to comfort myself with the idea that I can go and visit them both in their native land and Becca can cook me yummy food and they can show me all the places they talk about that mean absolutely nothing to me haha!

So I am back on my own for the next...36-40ish hours. Hopefully at least 20 of them will be spent sleeping and hopefully (fingers crossed) the times will line up and I will be able to see Toy Story 3 in Bangalore which would eat up some of the 12 hours I have to wait between trains and be awesome!

Oh and ALSO! Last night we were talking about things we miss from home and things you get in America but not the UK and apparently Laura was super excited when she found a Cinnabon in England and the English gal was excited to have found Mountain Dew. Then Steve, who worked in the US for a bit, started talking about Krispie Kremes straight from the oven. Yummmmm...

Becca is excited to be home, not for another month, and have pasta and curl up in her duvet. Myself? I don't miss the food too much (I'll be so excited to eat it when I get back though) except the idea of taking it out of the fridge whenever I want and not constantly eating in restaurants. Plus I know exactly how it'll go when I get home.

We will drive up and I will leave everything in the car so I can plop on the floor and Kira can flop into my lap. Then mom will say "Bree look at you, you're covered in dog hair already ugh!". Then I will take a quick shower and put on my fluffy sweatpants and a HUGE hoodie and watch Tivo with the boys and talk and make fun and eat ice cream with my laptop working off of wireless RIGHT on my LAP!

So pumped. I'll miss India, but living outta your bag for 2 months gets old and all...ok well now there are some more scattered but the majority of the people I love are in the USA.

Obviously some more shopping to do before I come back...I'm gonna be brokkkkkke.
But it's a once in a lifetime experience right? Can't put a price on that :-)

Quick Blog

So Hampi is turning out to be a great place to do nothing but read and take in the atmosphere. Sounds lame but is really awesome.

Rode in a circle boat made of bamboo, tar, and fiberglass and spun down the river taking in the views of the ruins and temples and rocks that look like someone was trying to build towers and then either got distracted or accidentally knocked them over. Great huge boulders. They are awesome. In fact if you took Colorado and mixed it with Florida, you would have somewhere eerily similar to Hampi.

And the mosquitoes here are way friendly. Overly friendly. I do not appreciate.

Oh and I forgot what took about an hour of our time yesterday: Laura and I decided to get our legs waxed. In case you were wondering, yes it hurt. And no, the lady did not, in fact, know what she was doing, despite having all the proper equipment. Laura has 2 blisters from overly hot wax and my legs are only half bare of hair despite repeated attempts. Needless to say I did not want to have to explain to her how to do this properly, so I gave up and refused to pay more than 50 rupees. That's a dollar. And my legs are less hairy...
Laura paid full price for her less hairy legs plus blisters. She is very nice. And also full price was about $3 so...

sidenote: a baby cow snuggled up to me and nursed on my finger this morning. It was adorable.
sidenote 2: a dalmatian puppy and I played today. She had no off button, loads of energy, and sharp teeth. It was adorable for about 1 minute and then I wanted put her in a kennel. I smiled cuz I love animals but I really wanted to tell them to teach her a few manners, she was yanking on my skirt and wouldn't let go! And she bit my hair. Good thing puppies are cute

Things I forgot were awesome when I blogged yesterday

Today we shopped. I finally bought my little metal statue of Nandi (the bull that Shiva the Destroyer rides) which was amazing because I have scouring Hampi for the perfect one and ended up buying two. But they are little and I have become quite smitten with Nandi since I've come to India.

But I forgot that the past 2 nights we ate at the rooftop restaurant, Durga which is awesome. We sat at long tables on cushions on the floor with paper lamps creating ambiance and people randomly picking up instruments and playing in the background. And did I mention you can see the temples from there? Or that the first night we had killer pizza? Or that it REALLY smelled like pot? --yea India is really into pot-- and even though alcohol is FORBIDDEN here, you can in fact order a rum and coke. I didn't, but it IS possible.

But anyways there was a drummer and a wooden flute thingy and a didgeridoo from Australia (but a small one) and guitar and it was wonderfully hippie. Especially when one man took out one of those illusion ball things that looks like they float and starting doing this weird floaty ball dance. It was baller.

We met a lovely pair of French people. I say pair because they are not dating but there are two of them. The French are out in full force in India, Kevin (the Frenchman) says it is a case of collective consciousness because at about this time every year all the French start towards India. It is nice for eavesdropping because my spoken French is poor but I comprehend rather well. We had discussions on culture and India experiences, reasons for travel, etc...

It is great to meet so many people with many different reasons for travel. I do find that most of us plan to return to India though, this place is too special to just leave and forget.

Anything else about today? It was really rainy and so we spent some time soaking India in and bargaining. Shopping with a purpose can be quite the all day job, it's taken me 2 days to find the perfect Nandi statues at the perfect price (all of $5 for 2 of them but they are small) and spent a lot of that time bartering and also trying to decide how much weight I was willing to carry back with me.

Getting close to coming home and still enjoying every minute!